SAVE pIAR TYSM
Friday: 02:15 – 05:00 AM,
Saturday: 23:15 PM – 05:00 AM
Sunday: 23:15 PM – 05:00 AM
[Screened at the Performance Stage]
The screening “save pIAR tysm” showcases five videos revolving around topics of body futurism, care and queer narratives and a trailer promoting the crowdfunding for perfocraZe International Artist Residency pIAR, one of the only openly queer spaces and a hub for radical performance in Kumasi, Ghana founded and directed by transwoman, lesbian icon, artist, activist Va-bene Elikem Fiatsi. At this moment the Ghanaian parliament discusses an Anti LGBTQIA+ law that, amongst criminalizing homosexuality, would make it illegal to rent property to any member of the queer community. Therefore, pIAR is subject to losing its home. The crowdfunding aims to buy a house for the community to act and live independently.
Organizers and participators of the screening are multidisciplinary artist Anna Ehrenstein featuring the Colombian vogueing collective “House of Tupamaras”, curator-writer Shaunak Mahbubani, artist-curator Fadescha, performance artist Sunny Pfalzer and Va-Bene Elikem Fiatsi herself. Anna, Shaunak, Fadescha, Va-Bene and Sunny say TYSM for your donation.
You can directly donate here:
Artist names and credits: Anna Ehrenstein with House of Tupamaras, Fadescha, Shaunak Mahbubani, Sunny Pfalzer with pIAR Allstars and Va-Bene Elikem Fiatsi
Anna Ehrenstein
Title: Tupamaras Technophallus
16:35 min, 2020
Description:
TT is a multidisciplinary work cycle that tries to synthesize a new relationship with science and technology iconography by delighting it with a global south, queer feminist kink. It consists of a 360 ° video VR assemblage with Colombian voguing and performance collective “House of Tupamaras”, sculptural works of advanced photography and site specific installations. Centered around an abandoned plane in Bogota, the surrealist-documentary video work reflects socio political issues through dance, fiction and interviews. Among others, the criticism of universal knowledge, narratives of fictitious peace and armed conflicts, gender-specific fluidity and the future dangers of data gaps for historically marginalized groups.
Bio:
Anna Ehrenstein lives between Berlin, Tirana and the cloud and works in various mediums in artistic or curatorial production, examining how technology and digital-material culture reshape power relations.
Activation:
Saturday: 23:15 PM – 23:45 PM
Sunday: 23:15 PM – 23:45 PM
Demonia Yeguaza
Subversive dancer, with her ass she dances all the way down and makes patriarchy and machismo tremble.
Voguing performance with reggaeton and combative perreo.
Shaunak Mahbubani
Title: Nothing Passes From Motion To Rest Unless You Move It In Hidden Ways
01:00 min, Year 2022
Description:
Drawing from a poem by Sufi mystic Mansur al- Hallaj, this one minute video introspects on the necessity of emotional labour to transition between motion and rest. In the poem, al-Hallaj serenades the moon, and the divine force it represents, by exalting its ability to make the ocean move through invisible power. Responding to the hyperactive, overstimulated world we live in, I invert al-Hallaj’s original line, reflecting upon the work required to pass from our states of constant motion into much needed rest. These ‘hidden ways’ include the cultivation of internal, interpersonal, and interspecies kinships. From our breath, to the rays of the sun, to the the flowers and her bees, to the friends who make us feel safe, each is companion and kin towards the state of sustained restfulness. (Shaunak Mahbubani, 2022) — Performers: Shaunak Mahbubani & Kinkinella, Director: Vidisha-Fadescha, Videography: Ada Navarro, Choreography: Caitlin Adams, Editing: Shaunak Mahbubani, Sound: Sijya
Bio
Shaunak Mahbubani is a nomadic curator and writer, currently living between Berlin and India. They primarily curate projects under the exhibition series ‘Allies for the Uncertain Futures’ focused on exploring possibilities of co-visioning futures grounded in the pursuit of non-duality. Recent curatorial projects include AUTOPOIESIS (Mexico City, Berlin, New Delhi), Party Office at documenta fifteen (Kassel 2022, co-curated with Vidisha-Fadescha), A—ligning the Un—certain (Maxim Gorki Theatre, Berlin, 2022), and Dance Trans* Revolution (After Party Collective, New York, 2021).
FADESCHA
Title: Burn All The Books That Call You The Unknown, 2020
9:00 min
Description:
Using theatrics of a dancefloor, Fadescha emphasizes that what appears as collectivity in the moment emerges through how we embody our histories, violence, vulnerabilities and desires into our movements. Most archives only make visible the gaze of those in power and assimilate people into categories they are able to define. “Burn All The Books That Call You The Unknown” makes space for plurality of identities and enacts a moment for self-representation and personal agency. Performers include Jyotsna Siddharth, Teya, Indranjan, Ramya P, Joey C, Patruni S. and Fadescha.
Bio:
Fadescha is an artist-curator speaking through a queer anarchist position. In their art works they bring together text, sound, performance and video, critiquing hegemonic archives through intimacy and somatic practices. In 2020, they founded Party Office, an anti-caste, antiracist and trans-feminist art and social space and time. “Party Office b2b Fadescha” were a lumbung artist at documenta fifteen, 2022.
Fadescha also works closely with curator-writer Shaunak Mahbubani as a performance and curatorial collective After Party Collective. They focus on creating affirmative spaces for TIN* persons.
Sunny Pfalzer
Title: When the Bats fly, 2020
07:00 min
Description:
The bats move in a pack, have an ultrasonic awareness of their surroundings and are a common, as well despised animal in Ghana. During a residency, together with local artists and activist Theresah Akomfah, Sharon Sedem Kamassah, Sel Kofiga, Austin Nortey, Julius Yaw Quansah, Awuhdu Suleman and Martin Toloku, we developed “When the Bats fly” as a performative intervention at the Kejetia Market. The poems treat political issues of identity, body norms and religion, relevant in the everyday life of the performers.
Bio:
Sunny Pfalzer is a performance artist, a Surfer Boy, a Go-Go-Girl and a Slug. They love to cuddle on the street. Whether they perform on stage, sew textile sculptures, hold a camera, or choreograph for public spaces, their approach is always bodily and felt.
Va-Bene Fiatsi
Title: Anyie Mienye We Are Clay, 2022
11:42 min
ANYIE MIENYE explores the power of performance and rituals as protest. The Video was recorded as part of a performance workshop in collaboration with Tubman Network.
Bio:
Born 1981 in Ho, Ghana, Va-Bene Elikem Fiatsi [ aka crazinisT artisT] is a transwoman with the pronoun sHit if not She. Va-Bene currently lives in Kumasi, Ghana but works internationally as a multidisciplinary “artivist”, curator, philanthropist and a mentor across several countries. She is the founder and artistic director of crazinisT artisT studio and perfocraZe International Artists Residency (pIAR) which aimed at radicalizing arts and promoting exchange between international and local artists, activists, researchers, curators, and critical thinkers. As a performer and installation artist, crazinisT investigates gender stereotypes, prejudices, queerness, identity politics and conflicts, sexual stigma and their consequences for marginalized groups or individuals With rituals and a gender-fluid persona, She employs her own body as a thought-provoking tool in performances, photography, video, and installations, ‘life-and-live-art’ confronting issues such as disenfranchisement, injustice, violence, objectification, internalized oppression, anti blackness, systemic indoctrination and many more.
crazinisT has performed and exhibited across the globe including countries such as Nigeria, Togo, Ghana, Switzerland, South Africa, Germany, Netherlands, Cape Verde, USA, Spain, Brazil, France, Sweden, Hungary, Belgium, Luxembourg, Japan and UK.
sHit has also been featured in several, publications and magazines such as the I-D Vice London, I-D Vice Dutch, Financial times, King Kong Magazine, CCQ London, Maimi Rails, ‘Freeflowingvisuals’, TRT WORD Film Documentary, This is Africa, Art Ghana, Lost At E Minor, CNN, The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Die Tageszeitung (TAZ), Horizonte da Cena, Radio FRO, Reuters, Hyperallergic etc
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